Blade servers are widely used in datacenters to save space and improve system management. They are self-contained computer servers, designed for high density. Blade servers have many components removed for space, power and other considerations while still having all the functional components to be considered a computer.
One of the principal benefits of blade computing is that components are no longer restricted to the minimum size requirements of the standard server-rack configuration. For example, densities of a hundred computers per rack and more are achievable with the present blade systems. Furthermore, as more processing power, memory and I/O bandwidth are added to blade servers, they are being used for larger and more diverse workloads. Additionally, each blade of a blade server has its own software appliance coupled therewith, thereby allowing for hundreds of software appliances to comprise one blade server.
However, there exist many limitations to the current state of technology with respect to blade servers. For example, while a blade server may host hundreds of software appliances coupled with hundreds of blades therein, the overwhelmingly large amount of blade inventory associated with these software appliances is costly to manage.
The drawings referred to in this description should not be understood as being drawn to scale unless specifically noted.